


The Secrets of Whiltworth Academy

by Mysteriousasthedarksideofthemoon



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Art Enthusiast Nile Freeman, Attempt at Humor, Bickering, Couldn't find one thus this monstrosity was born, Creepy Mansion/school, Cults, Dare I say an actual plot hypothetically, Did not mean the first part I respect teachers, F/F, F/M, Found Family Vibes, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, I love the teacher AUs but wanted a kinda cannon compliant version, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani and Nicky | Nicolò di Genova are in Love, M/M, Mission Fic, Old guard new tricks, POV Alternating, Some discussion of Booker's suicidal thoughts, Swearing, Those who can't do teach and those who can't teach are immortal warriors, undercover as teachers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:48:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27214426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysteriousasthedarksideofthemoon/pseuds/Mysteriousasthedarksideofthemoon
Summary: The Old guard are offered an unusual job to go undercover as teachers at a mysterious academy. This goes about as well as you would expect which is very unfortunate for them but very entertaining for us.They have faced down Warlords, an evil Pharmaceutical company, invading armies and even death itself but can they survive being trapped in a school with annoying children and spoiled and awful colleagues, not to mention the team building activities and rude attempts on their lives? Will they ever discover the secrets of Whitworth Academy?
Relationships: Andromache of Scythia & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolo di Genova & Nile Freeman, Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Nile Freeman, Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 10
Kudos: 41





	1. I don't want to, she can't make me

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> Thanks for giving my fic a go I hope you enjoy it. It is my first fic on this site and first multi-chapter story. I am however very committed to finishing it even if only for my own sense of accomplishment. I apologize in advance for my apparent love of long sentences and commas and hatred of full stops. I have also learned that dialog tags confuse the hell out of me so, sorry about that too. If you see any mistakes and have the time to let me know I would be grateful. I have quoted the lion king and don't own it, not sure if that needs to be said or not. Also several opinions of the characters towards certain movies are not shared by me. Please leave me a review if you can it would mean alot to me.  
> Hope you have a lovely day! Happy reading!

Nicky has lived through a lot in his near millennium long life: warlords, wars, rebellions and executions, not to mention being born before the invention of indoor plumbing or chocolate, he would like to think that he has for the most part coped with it all graciously , however this was asking too much. This was where he was drawing the line. He would die on this metaphorical hill, he would fight to the death on it, be dismembered and disembowelled on it, buried on it and forced to haunt it for eternity in the rain rather than accept defeat.

The four immortals were all sat in the living room of one of their nicer safe houses in Madrid. He had listened to Nile’s argument for a good ten minutes nodding along politely at the appropriate times. While thinking of the nicest possible way to politely tell her that it just wasn’t the sort of job for them, they would be terrible at it and it would be pointless because they, not her, would fail but she could pick _anything else_. He was so confident in his good opinion that he made the biggest mistake he could have as he opened his mouth to give her his answer, did the one thing that crumbled his resolve in seconds. He looked across the room and looked into Nile’s hopeful, disney princess eyes and really saw her.

He saw the woman who had given up her chance to be with her family to save people she had known for less than a week. He saw a warrior who still wasn’t accustomed to death and wasn’t sure if she wanted to be or not. He also saw a daughter without her mother and a sister without her brother. The old guard were a family but Nile was still new and there was a significant age difference between them, at least every week she would use a reference that none of them understood. They had been watching movies and shows of her choice almost every day to bond. She still felt left out though and at the very least this job would be a bonding experience. He sighed. He had no chance.

“Alright, let’s do it.” he said with all the enthusiasm he could muster. She gave him a dazzling smile in response and emitted an inhuman shriek of happiness as she bounced over to him to bestow a much needed hug before rushing off into the kitchen to get her laptop.

Joe and Andy were not quite as ecstatic. Andy sat on the large leather chair across from him a look of pure betrayal frozen on her face, as though Nicky had just snapped her labrys in half while kicking foals and proclaiming his love for Steven Merrick. His actual love sat beside him on the large couch. As he turned towards him Nicky already knew how he would react, after everything they had been through together he was sure that no two souls knew each other so intimately or honestly. All that was needed was a shrug and an apologetic little smile, he knew it was instantly accepted as Joe just made a small irritated noise before his shoulders slumped and his I-told-you-so grin caused Nicky to smile back with a reluctant nod. Joe then put his arm around Nicky’s back and began to rub soothing circles. A motion that proved entirely necessary as their silent conversation was interrupted by a sharp voice in Italian.

“What the hell Nicky!?”

“I’m sorry boss, I tried I really did.”

“She barely had to say anything to convince you!”

“Well you couldn’t say no either”.

“We, were ambushed by a 70 minute movie she made on her laptop, complete with Queen songs, words that flew around the screen and surprisingly moving quotes from cartoon animals”.

“I liked the lion one, ‘ _As you go through life, you will see that there is so much that we don’t understand. And the only thing we know is things don’t always go the way we plan_ ’. ”

“That one was quite eloquent.” Andy agreed “but the point is she was organised when she got to us.”

“She even had a bibliography. She snuck in a bunch of pictures of horses and Andy was convinced after The Karate Kid clips.”

“At least I didn’t crack after the first ten minutes! Joe, you were on board after she showed you one clip from the dullest movie I have ever been subjected to.” Andy commented as she rolled her eyes.

“Dead Poets Society is a _revelation_! John Keating saved their _souls_ , Andy their _hearts_!”

“Mr Miyagi saved Daniels actual beating heart when he saved his _life._ ”

“Yeah and despite all his skill Miyagi still encouraged him to use an, _illegal_ move to win”.

“Strike first, strike hard, no mercy.” Andy replied with a smug smile and a shrug.

“Andy, that’s what the bad guys say.”

“Point is Miyagi helped Daniel win a trophy and the movie ended with them celebrating, your guy got fired.”

“I think you both actually forgot your points awhile back. Although I do now want to rewatch Karate kid and see the one you’re talking about, love”

“You’ll love it Habibi, it’s about an enigmatic, passionate English teacher who inspires his students through his love of… _poetry_ ” he exclaims with a wide smile and gesturing enthusiastically with a pause for dramatic effect before his last word. Nicky smiles at his enthusiasm, Nile really knew how to motivate her new family.

“See _this,_ ” Andy began gesturing to Joe in a defeated tone “is why you were supposed to be the one to say no”.

There is no real malice in her words, after all every one of them knew that in the grand scheme of their lives it wasn’t a big sacrifice. Sure, the very idea of this particular job caused an instant inescapable feeling of dread in every one of them except Nile but logically it wasn’t a big ask and Nile was the one asking. The woman had flung herself out of a skyscraper to save Andy a few months ago. While that meant there was no possible chance of Andy refusing her a favour and they were all grateful that Andy was safe, the entire Old Guard knew that she would make that sacrifice for every one of them.

“It won’t be that bad Andy, it can’t be, please stop looking at me like that we are all centuries old, we have plenty to teach. You could teach them history, I can teach Italian and you will be a wonderful English teacher love, way better than the guy from the movie.”

Nile returned to the room carrying her bright blue laptop and sat herself on the sofa between Nicky and Joe who moved to make space for her. Andy joined them on her other side, leaning over to see the screen. It showed a beautiful mansion with a regal fountain and well maintained lawn. Nile smiles eagerly while reading the description on the website. “So this is _Whiltworth Academy, a luxurious private boarding school for the wealthy and gifted, aged 5-16. A place for young minds to be moulded correctly by accomplished teachers from a similar background resulting in the opportunity to take their proper place in polite society_ ” her smile slips slightly at the wording of the sentence. “It sounds a little snooty” she says a little insecurity clear in her tone, as she scrunches up her nose.

“Well it is a private boarding school, they have to _sound_ exclusive.” Nicky is quick to reassure her.

“They just do it for more prestige, I am sure it is very welcoming, especially towards new teachers” Andy adds.

“Plus you are _wealthy, gifted_ _and accomplished_. You own a villa in Monte Carlo, have survived jumping out of a skyscraper and were a United States Marine! They will be lucky beyond belief to have you even consider joining them! Even if it is just temporarily to spy on them and ends with them being arrested or killed. Also, they have a huge swimming pool and something called a cuddle a puppy day, so we’re doing this”.

Nicky unable to help himself as Joe finishes speaking reaches over without looking to hold his hand. One of the many reasons he is desperately in love with this man is his ability to almost always reassure someone. Even if the situation is dire and he can’t fix the problem, he is rarely unable to improve the mood. Nicky himself is quite good at reading people and although, he tries to help he is nowhere near as successful as Joe. His husband just seems to innately know how to respond to people. He is proven right as Joe instantly covers his hand with his own and mindlessly strokes a familiar pattern into his knuckles. Nicky has always been lucky to have this, a man with such an open heart, he thinks as a smile inevitably appeared on his face, even though it has meant that many nights over the years, including ones spent attending lavish balls and dingy nightclubs, have ended with Joe animatedly insulting a person he has never met while a new drunk acquaintance cries on his shoulder and Nicky, with an exasperated look returns with food for them to share.

He had completely tuned out of the conversation which might have been a mistake but honestly he didn’t want to think about the job, he trusted Joe and was sure he would fill him in later. He was instead thinking about their favourite clubs which led to him thinking about their favourite speakeasy and that inevitably led to remembering how endearingly happy Joe was those days. Some decades were harder than others and the first world war had left them all _weary_ , him and Joe had been separated for the first time in centuries, they had seen different horrors, suffered different losses. They weren’t sure how to communicate about it or even if they should. It had been a struggle but their second week in New York they found The Starbeam club. It was the exact place they needed exactly when they needed it. Nicky had no doubt in his mind that they would always find their way back to each other but it might have taken them longer anywhere else. He would always remember the feeling of freedom when he walked onto the dance floor. The spirit of the place was intoxicating, people were drinking, men were freely dancing and kissing with each other as were women. There was no doubt or uncertainty as Joe led him out into the throng of dancers. They both knew exactly how to move with the other, all the steps instinctual, familiar despite being technically new and they definitely weren’t the best dancers, they were unpractised, probably quite sloppy really and were definitely proving that they were older than they looked. It didn’t matter though because for that night every communication between them was completely natural, no aborted attempts at conversation, no glancing at each other from the corner of their eyes hoping that the other would break the hollow silence, no feeling guilty that neither had the courage to make the attempt. They finally felt like them again and Joe had been smiling the most beautiful smile Nicky had ever seen.

“So I’ll take English Literature and Italian”.

Apparently while he was so distracted thinking about how wonderful Joe was, Joe had in fact stolen the only subject that Nicky was willing or capable of teaching. He turned around to gape at his husband.

“Wait, what? But I am Italian” Nicky uttered in a voice that sounds whiny even to his own ears.

“But it has to be taught with English literature and that’s my _dream_ ”.

“You once told me your life’s dream was to teach Dolphins sign language”.

“Aren’t you glad I have a new dream?” Joe grinned charmingly.

“Wait, what? Did you actually try to do that?”

“Yes.” Came her reply from the older three immortals in three very different tones, Joe’s was defensive, Andy’s amused and Nicky’s nonchalant.

“They did it for _four whole years._ ” Andy cackles.

“Hey you think that’s bad Nile, wait until Andy drags you off into the Himalayas to save the locals from the bloodthirsty Yeti.” Andy glares at Nicky.

“Thanks, ya amar.” Joe says with a wink.

Nicky rolls his eyes. Ya amar normally works and gets Joe anything he wants but it won’t work this time. The problem is while Nicky has spent a lot of his life physically uncomfortable, lugging around heavy weapons, sleeping on floors, being born long before air conditioning and dying too many times to keep track of, he really isn’t used to being mentally uncomfortable. Normally if he is in a situation he doesn’t like he can stab someone to get out of it. This is very different territory. He knows for a fact that Joe is a more versatile teacher than him, he is an extraordinary poet and artist plus he is good at maths since he was a merchant. Nicky was not as well-educated in his mortal life and while he has more than made up for this in his immortal one he still instinctively knows that out of all of them he is the mostly likely to ruin the mission. The last time that he had to properly learn something new it was how to use modern weapons and it turned out he was a terrific shot. He doesn’t want to go back to undeniably being the weakest link. He is not a natural public speaker like Joe. He isn’t as naturally authoritative as Andy. He isn’t as able to instantly identify art like Nile. He can’t draw a proper circle. He stopped paying attention to any sort of new scientific discoveries in the 80s and the last time he tried to use a laptop it burst into flames. Nile claimed that it was just a faulty charger wire but he recognised it as the sign it was that he should never go near such a machine again.

Joe’s smile falters slightly and Nicky know that he is worried that he is genuinely upset. He smiles back with false confidence reassuring him.

“It’s fine, what else is there, Nile?"

“Um looks like there are only three subjects left, good job we decided to do this today”.

“Which one do you want?” Nile looks up at Andy shocked at the question. She clearly expected to have to fight for her preference but as she looks up at Andy and Nicky they both smile at her encouragingly.

“Well I think I told you guys I planned to get an Art History degree after the marines, so teaching art would be really perfect for me, if you guys don’t mind.” As she spoke she smiled brightly and Nicky felt instantly more relieved, this mission was really important to her, so whatever he had to do it would be worth it.

“You’ll be great at that Nile, you are a wonderful artist and critic.” Joe reassured her. He and Nile had been bonding a lot over art. They would go to museums and galleries together, they tended to agree about traditional art but argue over more modern pieces. Nicky could tell that Joe was ecstatic to have another artist in the group. Booker was the only other member of the guard who was interested in art it was one of the reasons why they bonded so quickly which unfortunately made his current banishment much more difficult for Joe. Andy wasn’t really interested in art unless it was of her or someone she loved, if it wasn’t personal to her she just wasn’t moved by it or interested. Nicky felt similar if he was being honest, for years he had thought it was wonderful, he only later realised that it wasn’t really the art that moved him, it was the person who introduced it to him. The passionate glint of Yusef’s eyes when he spoke about colours or perspective, the way his fingers moved masterfully across the page, the way that it grounded and comforted him like nothing else, especially in those dark early days, those were the real reasons that Nicky loved art. He was happy to know that Nile would have that comfort and always have someone to share it with.

“What are Nicky and I fighting over then?”

Oh shit. Even though her voice was playful Nicky knew he was screwed. Andromache the Scythian was not known for her diplomacy and he knew that next to him she was the most weary of this job. He also knew that it was only happening because he had promised her this very morning on his honour that he would find a way to politely convince Nile that this just wasn’t the job for them. Plus mortal or not she could still kick his ass. As Andy grinned at him he knew that she was thinking the same thing; he had got them into this mess, he owed her, so he had to live with the consequences.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two weeks later Nicky parked up outside Whiltworth Academy. It really was a beautiful place he could see why Nile wanted to come here. It must have been a couple of centuries older than Booker that must have been some part of the appeal for Nile, to experience a small part of the history they lived through. He couldn’t really take much in himself, he was nervous in a way he hadn’t been for centuries. It was different to how he felt before a battle or even how he felt if Joe was killed, it wasn’t as bad thankfully, nothing ever could be, but it was proving difficult to actually take off his seatbelt open the car door and step out.

He sighed and moved his hands, this time he managed to undo the seatbelt but apparently his body decided that was enough for now and that it wouldn’t listen to his brain until it figured out a way to make his stomach feel better. So he rested his hands on his legs and felt something sticking out of his left front pocket. He managed to dig out two things a note and some chewing gum. He smiled down at the little piece of paper perfectly scrunched up into the shape of a dolphin and popped some strawberry gum into his mouth as he carefully unfolded the dolphin, making sure that the creases were obvious enough so that he could fold it back the same way later. Once he read it a few times he knew he was ready to go into the building, he was ready for anything because the words echoed in his head in Joe’s voice ‘ _I believe in you and I always will_ ’.

He walked confidently into the reception giving them the fake name that Copley told him to and wandered into the large hall ready for the day. Apparently this academy had a rather odd recruitment process which mainly consisted of God awful group activities designed to see if they were team players and if they had leadership skills. He scanned the room and reluctantly sat down in one of only four remaining seats as he saw that the rest of his team were already sat next to strangers although he did get a smile from Nile and a much more nervous one than he expected from Andy. As he looked at Joe he smiled and tapped his pocket subtly. Joe returned his smile and brought his hand to rest on his chin, subtly kissing his ring as he did so before turning away, glancing automatically at Andy who rolled her eyes at him. Nicky turned the other way towards Nile who mouthed aww at him. He smiled then scanned the room. This wouldn’t be so bad he thought, not with so many familiar faces. He turned with a smile on his face as he felt someone sit to his left, a tall someone, with Blond hair. A tall blond French someone. Well, shit.


	2. How to fail a group Interview

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Guard struggle through a modern interview process full of irrelevant questions and trust activities. Plus Booker has to have a few awkward encounters.

Chapter 2

Nile was stressed. She was expecting to be a little nervous, after all she was interviewing for a position she wasn’t technically qualified for. Not to mention being ignored by several other interviewees as she tried to make polite conversation and remembering her team now all had fake names. Plus there was the tiny detail of knowing that if she did succeed someone would probably try their very best to murder her.

These tiny inconveniences however paled in comparison to realising that Booker had just walked into the room. The room that suddenly now contained a hopeful Andy and a disturbed Joe and Nicky.

Nile still hadn’t really known her fellow immortals for very long. So she wasn’t an expert on them or their group dynamic yet. From what she had observed Andy would be the most forgiving, especially since she was a mortal now. Nicky and Joe were much harder to judge.

She was observant and quite a good judge of character. She knew that Joe for example, was a patient and forgiving soul. She had literally killed him several times during training and was instantly forgiven.

She also noticed that lately he missed Booker. He would never mention it, at least not to her but it was clear as day several times. When they visited a museum or gallery together and he mentioned an artist she had never heard of or when he watched football alone or even when he was easily outvoted over dinner.

Booker had screwed up monumentally, but, Nile thought as her eyes darted between the two men, they were family, brothers, for ten times her own time on this earth, surely him turning up here was a sign, one that wouldn’t be ignored or wasted. They loved each other. Despite Joe seemingly not having blinked in the last three minutes and Booker looking at the window behind him as though he considered it a perfectly reasonable escape route.

Everything was going to work out fine, they were professionals, they would act like it.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So for our first icebreaker, we are going to decide which of you the group will have to abandon to die.”

Joe grinned manically at Booker Nile’s arm jerk slightly in an aborted face palm. Andy managed to supress any sort of reaction but after centuries he could hear her willing him not to draw attention to himself.

They had been split into smaller groups, which should have been fine since they were all spaced out randomly to blend in with the rest of the group. However Hyacinth Grosvenor had her own particular way of doing things, which meant going around the circle and giving everyone a number.

The result was a passive aggressive Joe, a defensive Booker, a tense Nile, an impatient Andy, three confused strangers and a lucky Nicky sat with a different group. He didn’t really register much about the three strangers, everyone had been told to keep the subject they were applying for quiet, so the only thing that he really noticed beyond the back-stabbing traitor, was that they were all vaguely annoying.

“You will each have a new identity explained on this card and must decide who gets the five seats on the lifeboat, after twenty minutes you shall all vote” Hyacinth finished with a smile as she handed out small cards to each member of the group. She then dragged her chair slightly off to the side behind Andy and smiled serenely as she clicked her stopwatch.

“For the sixth time, Jeremy” Nile internally cringed as the name passed Booker’s lips it was so un-Joe like. ”I am a doctor, an occupation which would be quite useful on a desert island.” Booker seethed through gritted teeth.

“I am aware of your occupation Samuel, however none of us actually require medical help-“

“Actually I think I broke my wrist and my leg when the ship started to sink” Zoe spoke up.

“Course you did.” Joe remarked bitterly. “Why didn’t you tell us this ten minutes ago?”

“Because I’m not willing to go down with a sinking ship simply because William pushed me down a flight of stairs, in his haste to abandon us all and sail away in our only lifeboat.”

“It is simply survival of the fittest, I will not apologise.” Joe looked over at him judgingly at that. William clearly belonged on the sinking ship with Booker.

“Ok so the doctor has to have a seat too, right?” Nile asked from her spot slightly away from the rest of the group as the only person they had decided was definitely safe, after a five minute argument and several protests from William and Edwin, they had finally conceded that yes the person with the cure for cancer should survive.

“Only if we all think Zoe should survive too.” Edwin remarked.

“As I said eleven minutes ago, Zoe has to survive to run her orphanage because surely we can all understand the importance of her duty to care for children, because we all love them and they would prioritise them above all else.” Andy said slowly, making an admirable attempt at a diplomatic tone but falling quite short.

“Someone else can do that instead, besides she is a known thief she probably steals from them too!”

“Good point Will, I don’t want to share my lifeboat with a thief.”

“Trust me Edwin, that will not be an issue!”

Andy sighed and glanced at Joe.

“Look, we all agreed to pick the most useful people, Natasha can cure cancer, Edwin has survival training, William is strong and supports four children and Zoe looks after an orphanage with 30 children, meanwhile you’re an 94 year old hairdresser and my card says I literally am not to be trusted because of my violent outbursts and paranoid nature. It’s a pretty clear cut decision.”

“That’s just ageist, I still have a lot of time to live a full and rewarding life, I still have six grandchildren to raise.”

“Oh come on, they all have parents they will be fine without you.” The fact that Booker was now the one arguing with him made him feel ten times more sensitive.

“What would you know of child rearing, you abandoned yours ten years ago?”

Joe knew it was a mistake the moment he said it. He still wasn’t sure why exactly, the part of his brain which understood emotions usually flourished, but today it felt so drained. He only knew that he had somehow hurt Booker. Despite having been arguing with him for the best part of twenty minutes and living with the ache of his betrayal for months his first reaction was regret in causing that brief flash of pain across his face.

“Time to vote.” Hyacinth had wandered back over with a cheerful smile.

Despite Booker and Andy both volunteering to sacrifice themselves, there was still no unanimous agreement thanks to William and Edwin. They were then all treated to an hour long speech about the Academy and its values which included the three Ds, determination, decorum and dedication. Nothing was mentioned about actual teaching methods, of course it was more important to be informed of the appropriate skirt length and rules on jewellery Joe thought sarcastic.

Finally the speech was over and they were informed that they had a fifteen minute break. Joe left the room quickly, as much as he wanted to he knew he couldn’t talk to his team, he was undercover he reminded himself as he hurried down the stairs, they wouldn’t be able to have a proper conversation until later anyway and he really was not in the mood to make fake small talk with his team or the other snobs in the room or God forbid Booker.

He was nearly at the large wooden door when suddenly he was dragged into a cleaning closet. His instincts finally took over when he elbowed the person in the chest while simultaneously throwing his head back. He was rewarded with a satisfying crack as he wheeled around and glared at a bloody Booker. In his defence he had actually let go of Joe a split second before he attacked him, but in Joe’s defence he was quite alarmed that someone had managed to get so close to him without him automatically reacting. Something which he realised was only possible because it was his friend.

“What the fuck, are you doing?” Joe hissed, it was taking more of his willpower than he would care to admit not to shout.

“I just wanted to talk to you somewhere private.”

“Somewhere like say perhaps the empty garden I was walking to?”

“No, it isn’t safe there; I don’t think it’s really private.”

“Why?”

“There is surveillance everywhere.”

“And you don’t think being caught on camera dragging someone into a cleaning closet might look a little odd?”

“It’s the only place I know for sure there are no listening devices or cameras. I even found listening devises under the sinks.”

“Wait, what are you even doing here?”

“I got a letter one that until just now I thought was sent by one of you, are you sure-”

Booker stopped talking as Joe shook his head.

“We didn’t want you here.”

Booker looked away at that.

“Maybe it was Copley, he knows I haven’t been” he paused slightly before continuing “he knows I want work and I thought this was the last sort of job you would take.”

“Nile wanted it. She’s had a rough transition, even for us.”

Although Joe didn’t say it Booker still heard ‘after what you did’.

Joe leaned against the shelf behind him and folded his arms. After a few seconds of silence Booker lurched forward slightly and began speaking trying to catch Joe’s eye who determinedly stared at the floor.

“Joe, I know that what I did was terrible, it was selfish and cowardly and you didn’t deserve any of it-“

“Neither did Nicky or Andy or Nile.”

“No, no, of course they didn’t, I just” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I wanted to tell you how truly sorry I am, it was never my intention to hurt any of you-“

Joe scoffed as he finally met his eyes. “Never your intention to hurt us, you arranged for someone to kidnap us, restrain us and cut us up. They treated us like animals, cut into us without anaesthetic, I felt that evil bitch’s hand inside my chest, I saw her do the same thing to Nicky and I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t stop her, couldn’t get to him and every time I died or passed out I was terrified they would separate us. And it was all your fault. So enlighten me what was your intention? I’m genuinely curious to know, I’ve spent months trying to figure it out, desperately trying to come up with any semblance of an answer that could possible make a shred of sense. So tell me exactly why you did it?”

“I can’t. I wasn’t thinking properly, I was just in so much pain that I needed it to stop and there was a chance Merrick could do that.”

“A chance. After two hundred and fifty years that was all Nicky and I were worth to you.”

Booker opened his mouth to respond but the look on Joe’s face was enough to close it. What could he say? His immediate instinct was to deny it, that would be the truthful. They were his family, he had always chosen to keep them in his life because he loved them, they meant the world to him but knowing that he still chose to betrayed them.

For a second the room was still, the two were looking each other in the eye, the only sound was of Booker nervously rubbing his wedding ring. A habit of the happily married father of three Joe had met two hundred and fifty years ago. Booker had been a completely different man then, he saw immortality as a gift, instead of dying a deserter far from home on a frozen abyss, he would get the chance to return home, dance with his wife, watch his sons marry, provide for them, protect them.

The man in front of him looked so unsure so anxious. His shoulders were only slumped slightly, for most people it would only signify that they were slightly tired but Joe knew Booker better than that and despite his size, his slicked back hair and suit and tie he was as scared as a child when asking a loved one to check under their bed for monsters. Joe immediately felt a wave of unwanted sympathy.

That was the problem really, despite everything Joe still considered Booker as a best friend, his only brother. He knew that if it came down to it, he would take a bullet or a knife to the heart for him.

The older man sighed and pushed himself away from the shelf standing up straight as he began to talk.

“Book I don’t want us to fight. You’re still my friend. I still have your back in a fight, but I’m not ready to forgive you and I will never be able to understand how you could do that to us”

He wished that he was still furious but he was more confused and untethered in a way he had never been in his entire life. Booker’s betrayal had shattered the soul irrefutable principle he had believed for his entire existence.

Throughout his life many truths were proven false, the belief that he had as a child and young man that he would take over his father’s business, ended with his first death. The idea that he would marry and father children, this changed as soon as he simply realised as teenager that he had a choice. The notion that he would always despise the Frank that killed him was clearly impossible. Thank Allah, that the certainty of the same man never returning his love was also proven completely untrue. Even the most universal truth, death being the end of his life in his body, proved to be untrue for him.

The only part of Joe’s long and ever changing life that had stayed constant, from his birth to Booker and Andy being dragged into that damned lab was his trust in family. He believed that they would always love and protect him and he would do the same. Even during the early days of immortality, rising from death, bloody and terrified, knowing that a deathless enemy hunted him, convinced that Allah had abandoned him he knew that his family never would.

Nicky and Andy didn’t share this flaw. Andy, Joe discovered one night after she drank too much vodka had been betrayed by one of her family, she thought it might have been her mother but she wasn’t sure anymore, out of jealousy and fear of being overthrown, the woman had caused her first death, violently. Nicky was surprisingly agile when it came to avoiding the topic of family, especially in their early days. Joe didn’t want to push, it was clear that Nicky had a very different experience to his own although he was quick to claim that it was all fairly standard, Yusuf had no idea what that meant for a Frank at the time but he had been assured that it was nothing too awful, more a lack of anything good than an abundance of anything bad. As they grew closer, the topic seemed to become much less important, it only caused discomfort so it was forgotten.

This resulted in Andy and Nicky having a much more guarded attitude when it came to really trusting people. They weren’t rude or cruel but they were weary. Especially after they lost Quynh , for a while they saw enemies everywhere. Joe had been a lot quicker than them to truly trust Booker. A lot quicker than any reasonable person would have been honestly.

“I understand, I am sorry Yusuf.”

Joe just nodded in response. Right now wasn’t the right time to sort everything out. He was on a mission and it was for the whole team to decide.

“We should go back, we can all meet up tonight. We are going to a pub in town called the Drunk Duck.”

“Thanks, I know I am asking for a lot but I will fix this I promise, I know it will take time but I will earn your trust back no matter how long it takes.” Joe simply nodded again before he left the closet, Booker following at a respectable distance.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Welcome back everyone, now we are going to dive back into our activities with an important exercise about trust.”

Nile shared a sideways look with Andy. This day had not started off well. It did seem like Joe and Booker had both relaxed a little now though she was not sure how well they were going to handle a trust exercise. Andy had already seemed to forgive Booker before they parted, she understood his pain in a disturbingly familiar way that the rest couldn’t, even though she didn’t believe his actions were justifiable. Nicky was harder to read, he had not mentioned Booker once while Joe made his opinion on the matter clear immediately and with the most poetic cursing Nile had ever heard.

“I want everyone to find a partner and decide which of you will be blindfolded and which of you will be their guide. The guide will have to remain still while shouting directions to their partner, the other member of the team with go through the gardens collect a tennis ball and bring it back. Everyone please line up across the edge of the grass and put the blindfolds on”

Nile glanced to her side again with a hopeful smile. The plan had been to pretty such be split up for the entire day and try to avoid each other but it had been quickly derailed by most of them ending up in the same group. It would look odd if they suddenly abandoned the people they had spent the morning with, it seemed like everyone else already had their own interview buddy. Except Nicky, who clearly thoroughly hated the group he had been stuck with for the morning.

The problem was there were now five of them and she didn’t think Joe and Booker could do this without another fight, Joe and Nicky weren’t allowed to pair up so quickly despite their weak protests.

“We’re professionals, boss.”

“You’re supposed to be strangers and once you two are next to each other for about two minutes it becomes obvious.”

“It is not obvious; we have hidden our relationship in the past, no?”

“Not recently and this isn’t our usual type of job so just try to avoid each other at the interview, once we get the job Jeremy Reed and Nathaniel Green can fall in love in a day.”

“It would only take a minute.” Joe said with a wink.

“It would be their destiny.” Nicky replied with a smile.

“You’re just further proving my point.”

The easy solution would be for Nile to pair up with one of the guys, Andy with another and whoever was left to find a stranger. There was one big problem with that plan though, the woman Nile had noticed the moment they were put into groups was smiling as she bounded over to her. The same woman Nile had spent the morning admiring as she held her own in argument after argument with two of the most annoying people Nile had ever met not to mention the effect her smile was having on Nile’s chest.

She wasn’t a bad friend she told herself as she saw Joe moving towards her out of her peripheral and closed the distance between her and Zoe.

“Do you want to wear the blindfolded?”

“Why Natasha, I thought you’d never ask!” Zoe sniggered as Nile carefully blindfolded her. That’s not the sort of thing a straight woman would say, right? Nile pondered this as her fingers gently moved her soft curls back into place, fixing the mess made by the blindfold.

“Does that feel ok?”

“Perfect, you know I think we might have a shot at winning this one? I’m pretty sure Anne is going to steer William into a tree just for fun, that’s what I would do.”

Nile smirked as she quickly glanced over at Andy, she did not look too happy, William did but she doubted that would last for long.

“She didn’t even say this was a competition.”

“Isn’t everything?”

It turned out to be an extremely optimistic prediction from Zoe as about ten seconds in she had ran head first into a tree.  
In Niles defence it was a small tree not like the big one that Andy had accidentally on purpose sent her partner into. At least they were beating them. Nicky was apparently not over Booker’s betrayal at all as he had directed him face first into six trees before Booker started to do the opposite of whatever he told him which led to Nicky using reverse psychology to lead him into tree number seven. While Joe and Edwin were doing surprisingly well until the concept of left and right came up and Joe watched in dismay as Edwin tried to figure out while blindfolded which hand made an L shape.

Zoe was on her way back she had collected the yellow tennis ball and was maneuvering her way around the last big tree that separated them. They actually did make a good team, sure a few others had beaten them but as long as she beat her friends Nile was happy and she easily did that she thought as she watched Booker stagger into a bush which already imprisoned Edwin at the same time that William just sat on the grass and refused to move.

Hopefully the rest of the guard excelled at another part of this interview she thought because at the very least Nicky and Andy had definitely failed this part.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andy could do this she thought as she resisted the urge to check her watch. It was the very last part of the day. She made it through the lifeboat thing and having to try and guide that idiot through the garden, although it was quite satisfying to watch him bounce of the tree. This last part though, it was testing her. Nile had just seemingly given a good answer when asked which superhero she would be as she described a powerful young woman who could control lightning and was an excellent school teacher. The guys though she thought happily seemed to be suffering as much as her.

Booker had been very confused when asked which Star Wars character he was most like and why. “Er Dath Vader,… because I have asthma”. Andy had no idea who that was but judging from the reaction of the other three it was the sort of character you would want to compare yourself to.

Nicky had only just managed to stop his eye roll half way through trying to make it appear that he was looking up in concentration instead before answering his own question, “Jafar. He was ambitious and hard-working and there was just something very charismatic about him.” Nicky replied with a somewhat dreamy expression. Apparently this was an even worse answer than Booker’s, judging from Nile's eye roll.

When his turn came around Joe seemed disappointed for a second that he didn’t get the Star Wars question. “If I was a crayon, I would be a sky blue colour because it’s the most beautiful colour in the world, it is the colour that sailors pray for during storms and prisoners dream of. It represents life, beauty and hope. It is the colour I am thankful to wake up to every day-“ Andy suddenly developed a loud annoying cough as Joe and Nicky continued to stare soulfully into each other’s eyes.

“I would be a blue crayon because it’s my favourite colour.” Joe finished quickly looking back at Hyacinth as Andy rolled her eyes.

Andy apparently didn’t do much better with her question. “I would use the scissors to stab a thief.” She said confidently, honestly, why else would she need them. If she was delivering pizza at night then it would make perfect sense to have a weapon. Although apparently from the expression on her face it didn’t make sense to Grosvenor. “And of course to cut the pizza.” Andy added as Nile mimed it discreetly from across the circle. “I would only use the scissors to maim of course, I wouldn’t’ endorse killing and I’m great at biology so I would know how to do that safely.” from the fact that no one in her group was even trying to school their incredulous, horrified or amused expressions anymore she got the feeling that she was digging a deep hole for herself. “I used to coach combat sports and teach self-defence and I believe it to be crucial for people to learn to defend themselves, especially young women or girls. There are lots of, criminals and uh ruffians out there.”

“Quite right dear, yesterday I saw a man with a neck tattoo in the village!”

“How truly awful!” Andy barely managed to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

Grosvenor nodded enthusiastically. “Now for the next part I am going to give you a couple of scenarios you will be likely to experience and I want you to write the best ways to handle them, you have twenty minutes and then the interview will be over.”

  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
The guard had claimed the table in the back corner of the pub. They were chatting to each other happily as Booker walked in, Nile and Joe arguing good naturedly while Nicky and Andy laughed at them. Booker was concealed from their view, he had barely taken more than a step into the building.

He had hoped that once he had gotten into the car he was renting after the interview he would feel less nervous, he had then convinced himself that surely by the time he got out of the car he would feel better, as he walked to the red doors of the pub, he was convinced that once he finally actually got around to going inside he would feel confident, but instead he just felt out of place.

When his wife and children had died he was completely devastated. He felt an awful emptiness in his life, his soul. He had at first tried to fill it with work, he thought that maybe if he was able to save other wives and children it would bring him peace. It helped a little to know that he was making a difference and in such high pressure situations he would be distracted. The last few months taught him that what had really been helping him was his second family.

He had expected Andy to welcome him back even if she still held onto some bitterness over his betrayal. She wouldn’t completely trust him, not for a long time but she would be glad that he could be a part of her life again before she died.

Joe was much more direct. He always had been, which was a relief, it was also the reason Booker had decided to follow him that morning rather than try to talk to the others instead, he needed to know exactly where he stood with at least one of them.

Nicky was much more difficult to read. He had not acknowledged him once since they escaped the lab. When he sat next to him that morning he had simply looked shocked and turned to the other immortals. He would have much preferred that he shout at him like his husband.

He decided to stall for more time by going over to the bar. He had been drinking a lot lately, had planned to attempt to stay sober in front of everyone but he decided at the bar, they had seen him drunk for years and after the day he had he really needed a drink.

“Hey Book.” he jumped at the sudden noise at his right shoulder. He didn’t know why he jumped he recognised her footsteps from across the room.

“Hey Andy.” his voice was betraying him. It must have been clear to her how lost he felt. She was always excellent at reading him. He fought the urge to apologise to her again, he knew that she just wanted an easy casual interaction, like old times. She leant against the bar as she ordered them each a shot of vodka and pulled a disgruntled face before asking for tap water too.

“Apparently my old alcohol tolerance was part of my immortality too. Downing a bottle of vodka is actually considered dangerous.” She explained in response to his confused expression.

“How are you a part from that?”

“Well yesterday Nicky and Joe freaked out when I tried to change a lightbulb. Don’t pull that face! They were completely overreacting even Nile was on my side until they told her how many times I’ve been electrocuted and she realised that I hadn’t switched it off at the wall.” She bumped him with her shoulder slightly to try to dislodge his smug expression.

She picked up her drink and started to walk back to the table with him by her side.

“You know I prefer candles, they give the room a much nicer effect anyway and I only got electrocuted a few times when it was new, I never got killed by a herd of cows.”

“That was an extreme case and I was drunk.”

“You basically just summed up our life stories.”

They both grinned at each other as they reached the table. Andy sat at one end of the booth while Booker took the chair between her and Nile, who smiled at him as he arrived. Joe and Nicky weren’t quite as friendly and simply nodded at him before Andy spoke.

“So Book, Joe told us you got a letter telling you to come here.”

“Yeah, at first I thought it was from you but I think it must be from Copley.”

“He has been shiftier than usual lately.”

“What did this letter say?” Nile inquired.

“Just that there was an interview at the school soon, that six teachers there had gone missing in two years and that it was our kind of job because the staff and parents were well connected and didn’t want the matter to be pursued.”

“And it didn’t mention working with us?” Andy said as Booker suddenly felt much more vulnerable. They could refuse him. Tell him to leave and stay away from them for 99 more years and 8 months.

Nile jumped slightly as her phone vibrated in her jacket pocket and she excused herself as she walked away from the table slightly to answer it.

“No it didn’t. I didn’t think you would do this kind of job. If you really don’t want me here I’ll go.”

“Do you want to work with us again?” Joe asked as Andy’s phone suddenly sprang to life and she did the same as Nile.

“Of course!” Booker replied much too quickly. Surely it was obvious.

“We would need to talk it over ourselves first.” Nicky said quietly as a smiling Nile rejoined them and it was Joe’s turn to answer his phone.

“Nicky I am so sorry about what I put you through, I already apologised to Joe and I’m going to have a proper talk with Andy later and apologise” It was harder than he expected to keep eye contact with his friend as he said this. Nicky’s reaction was worrying him more than Joe’s now. He had always been the hardest out of the three of them for Booker to read but at the moment it was proving to be impossible.

“I will understand whatever you choose. When I first saw you I thought I was coming here because I was wanted, that I was coming to help you.”  
The table was quiet for a few seconds after that. The silence was broken by loud heavy metal music emitting from Nicky’s jacket. He answered the phone as Nile smiled at Booker.

“Nile, I am so sorry-“

“You already said that and I forgave you, and you will have plenty of chances to get back in my good books on our mission.”

“They hired you? Congratulations Nile! You were wonderful, you might be on your own though.”

“Nah, I asked they said successful candidates would be notified tonight, rejections would start tomorrow and if they all got through” she gestured to the others all receiving offers from the academy “after the crap they pulled, I mean he led you face first into more than 9 trees, if he’s in your in, although I have to admit I thought none of us would make it.”

“Hmm it’s almost as if we are being led into a horrible trap.”

“What are they going to do, kill us?” Booker grins at her in response as his own phone suddenly lights up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be the first day of teaching! I actually have an outline now and the next update should be less than a week. Thank you so much for the Kudos I have got so far I really appreciate them! If you do have time to leave a review please do, if not thank you for reading anyways, hope you have a lovely day/night!


	3. First days are hard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has a nasty shock. Another familiar face returns and the team face off against their own incompetency.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya, I am so sorry that this update is late. My poor laptop finally died and I had to get a new one. Updates will be more consistent, I swear on my Netflix subscription! Again anything that the characters choose to insult is their opinion not mine, except Of Mice and Men, I really did not like that book! I have also realised while writing this how little I know about teaching or boarding schools or any of the subjects that the old guard teach, so sorry for any errors. Also I added some Italian from google translate so I am sorry if it is wrong. I added the translation as an end note.  
> Happy reading!

Chapter 3  


“I’m sure we can all manage this.”

The rest of the guard turned their heads with break-neck speed to turn identical looks of disbelief towards Andy.

Once again the guard had expected the day for the most part to be predictable and once again they had been gravely mistaken. 

They had all gathered in the staff room to have a welcome breakfast and be introduced to the other teachers. Nile had been quite excited about that, she loved the rest of the guard dearly but it would be nice to talk to people a little closer to her age again. Someone who understood when she referenced a meme. She smiled as she spotted Zoe and waved her over. 

“Congratulations!”

“Thanks, you too.” Zoe smiled as she spoke, “I knew you would get through!”

Nile beamed back at her as they took a seat with the rest of the guard.

Andy didn’t look as pleased that her partner from the interview had got a job, he didn’t feel the same as he gave her a friendly wave from across the room. Joe and Edwin amicably congratulated each other. 

The chatter in the room stopped as Hyacinth began to speak.

“Good morning everyone, it is my great pleasure to welcome you all to a wonderful year of education at Whiltworth Academy! Welcome back to my brothers and sisters and welcome to the family, new hires. I would like to share our culture and values with you by telling you a fable we all hold dear-”

It was shortly after this point that Nicky began to doubt his grasp of the English language. It seemed to be the only excuse he could think of for the utter nonsensical story that followed about a frog, talking wardrobe, kettle, lion, penguin and hedgehog.

“And I think we all know which we would rather be, and which we actually are.” Hyacinth finished philosophically with one delicate eyebrow raised.  
Nicky met Joe’s eye and mouthed penguin while he mouthed frog. They just smiled at each other and shrugged.

“I would now like to remind you of our most important rule, the old building is still unsafe for everyone therefore, forbidden grounds, to students and teachers. You will find a copy of our other rules in each of your rooms. Now allow me to introduce our new teachers, Miss Natasha Nichols,”

Nile stood up at the mention of her fake name and gave a little wave to the room, it wasn’t a particularly friendly room. At least Hyacinth waved back.

“She will be our new games teacher”. Nile suddenly stopped smiling as she dropped down into her seat. 

“Mr Jeremy Reed will be our new drama teacher” Joe covered his confusion better than Nile as he also stood and smiled at the room. 

The situation just got worse from there. Nicky ended up with her beloved subject Art although he didn’t look too thrilled about it. In fact he looked horrified.  
As soon as they got the chance they all met at their designated rendezvous point, the only location without cameras or listening devices in the entire building, that was how Nile ended up in a damp dark cupboard with a suspicious smell assaulting her nose and Booker’s elbow jabbing into her side as Andy valiantly attempted and failed to boost morale. 

“We have been through much worse, this is a chance for us to learn new skills, rise to a new challenge, to shape young minds in a supportive environment-“

“You don’t actually know what ICT is do you?” Nicky asked from his position on the floor. He had slumped down five minutes ago and didn’t appear to have any plans to get up anytime soon.

“I do. It’s teaching people how to make bird houses and benches and those sorts of things, right?” she added the last bit hesitantly as Nile shook her head slowly at her. 

“What did you think it stands for?” Joe asked with a slight smirk as he rubbed soothing circles onto Nicky’s back.

“What does it stand for Joe?” 

That shut him up Andy thought smugly as he considered for a second before turning to Nile.

“Information and communications technology.” she spoke quietly as though bracing herself for Andy’s reaction. In all the time that Nile had known her the only technology she had witnessed her using was a flip phone.

“And that means…”

“Computers Andy.”

“Ah well we did everything we could, time to go.”

“Agreed boss we tried our very best.”

Nile turned to frown at Nicky, he was normally much more optimistic than this.

“We can’t just leave, we have a job to do.” Nile looked at the other two for support. Booker seemed to want to stay out of another argument so she focused on Joe giving him her best Disney Princess eyes. She knew it was working at least a little. Andy and Nicky looked worried.

“None of us can actually convincingly pull this off Nile.” he did not sound convinced of his own words as he said them and carried on even more hesitantly.

“Someone would figure us out, very quickly. Maybe we could be teachers but we would be terrible ones.”

“We don’t need to be good ones. That isn’t our job, not really our job is to find out what really happened to the missing- to Mary, Daniel, Graham, Sophia, Luke and Alex.”

Something shifted in the rest of the guard as they absorbed her words.

“But why were we the only ones who got the wrong subjects? The other new teachers didn’t look confused?” Nicky questioned. They had all just accepted it at the time because they realised that Andy was supposed to teach history, a subject which Zoe had apparently been hired to teach. They were worried that if it came down to it Andy might lose her chance to teach anything. 

“Copley must have mixed up our names, it’s the only explanation, if someone was out to get us there are much more direct ways.” Booker replied quickly.

“You’re right, everyone can just wing it for one day then tonight we can help each other and figure out how to properly teach our subjects, it can’t be that hard, over the years we have impersonated politicians, members of the clergy, royals, pirates and we even infiltrated Eurovision, this is doable, agreed?” 

“Wait, Eurovision?”

“I’ll tell you later, kid.” 

Andy then turned to each of them and received a nod in affirmation. She smiled widely.

“Good, lets get out of this cupboard and confuse the hell out of some kids!”

*

Nicky blinked at the board in front of him. He had the marker in his right hand, an absolutely enthralled audience of eight year olds and absolutely no idea what to do.  
He decided to write his fake name on the board, unfortunately even moving his hand as slowly as possible that only took him 32 seconds, damn Copley for giving him such a short alias. 

That gave him an idea though and he wasted the next ten minutes getting everyone in the class to introduce themselves and tell the class their favourite form of art, then what colour crayon they would be and why, then he started to run out of ideas and asked them about their favourite animals.

All the while he had desperately been trying to recall anything Joe had ever told him about art. It was futile. A few of the children were openly glaring at him now. He really couldn’t blame them. 

Suddenly a relevant piece of knowledge popped into his head, like most of his best ideas it was inspired by Joe.

“Great, now that we all know each other we are going to do some practical art!”

Every child looked relieved as most of them smiled eager to do something fun and avoid more awkwardness.

“We are going to learn how to properly hold a paintbrush”.

He may not know how to actually create art but he sure spent enough time watching Joe paint to remember what his hands looked like while he was doing it.  
He congratulated himself silently despite all twelve children’s faces falling. Wait until we move on to how to properly hold a pencil he thought as he handed out the paintbrushes slowly.

*

Andy was surprisingly faring quite well. Her classroom was full of laptops. Some considerate soul had already put them out for her, one in front of each chair. They were hard to ignore.

But Andromache The Scythian was a women who routinely ignored bullet wounds and knives to the chest. 

Her plan had been to simply ask her class to write a list on paper concerning their favourite aspects of ICT, anything they were struggling with and the parts of the subject they were most excited to learn about and discuss it with the people around them.

It was a solid plan. It should have required minimal effort or interference from her. That was until she realised her class was full of fifteen-year olds who would have to sit an important exam within a year and while most seemed content to have a relaxed lesson, Lucy Matthews was not.

“Miss Adams.” 

Andy supressed a cringe at the name. It was as if Copley had found it in a comic book. She considered ignoring her, it was normally a successful tactic for Andy. She had literally ignored people until they died of old age. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be practical in her current situation, so she raised her head and asked casually.

“Yes?”

“I finished my list.”

“Then discuss it with your partner.”

“She isn’t smart enough to understand it”

Shit. If a fifteen-year old didn’t understand it then she sure as hell didn’t.

“You can’t speak about people in that way. Apologise to Cressida then help her with her list.”

“Sorry you don’t understand Cressida.” Lucy said in a sarcastic voice. 

Andy shot daggers at her with her eyes before quickly schooling her features. She could work this to her advantage.

“Actually, Lucy could you come up to the front please and explain some of the most common misconceptions in the subject?”

*

Joe was feeling lucky. Despite everyone’s subjects being changed he had ended up with something easy. As Nile had told him he could literally sit down and ask his students to act out any play he could think of. He was actually enjoying it.

His first class, a class of twelve-year olds had each been performing their favourite death scenes. Timmy had made a particularly convincing Darth Vader and Zara’s performance as Mufasa, while lacking necessary props or stunts, had been particularly moving.

Everything had been going unexpectedly well until the last half of the class when Humphrey Howard III, leader of the PTA walked into his classroom. A man in his late 30s, dressed in an expensive dark blue suit with the insufferable arrogance of a man born with all the advantages the world could offer and no humility.

“Ok guys that was great! Keep practicing if you haven’t performed yet, if not just relax for abit.” Joe told his class as he turned his attention towards his visitor.

“Hi, can I help you?” Joe asked with a pleasant smile.

“Yes, Mr Reed, I’m here to talk about the school play.”

“Oh, I wasn’t aware we were producing one this year, I haven’t chosen one yet Mr…?”

Humphrey’s smile immediately became more forced, whether he was more offended at his reputation not proceeding him or a drama teacher picking the school play Joe couldn’t tell.

“Lord Humphrey Howard III, Earl of Buckinghamshire, leader of the parent teacher association of Whiltworth Academy,” he paused expecting an impressed reaction or apology. He continued when he didn’t get either.

“A few of our previous employees did not understand what was expected of them, I am simply here to make sure that we do not have the same issue. This folder contains all the policies that we have agreed must be implemented for the play which has already been selected, it’s on page 24. I have also added the minutes of our previous meeting, for you to peruse at your earliest convenience. Rehearsals should start by next week though.”

He was here to find six missing people he reminded himself. Although he would not be surprised, he thought as he was passed a heavy black folder, if they were just driven to leaving their old lives behind and gaining new identities to escape the PTA, he was already tempted to.

“I am giddy beyond belief to read your, 306 page, how very thorough of you, and double sided file, but if you will excuse me I have been neglecting my class”.  
Joe turned around before he could reply and walked back to his students as he heard Howard’s footsteps echo away. He dropped the file and kicked it under his chair as he met Timmy’s eye and they exchanged a defiant grin.

*

Booker’s mind had gone blank. The thing about languages was if you didn’t practise you would forget most of it and he had not practiced Italian in a long time. The only times he had needed it in recent years was when Nicky would slip into it when drunk or not quite recovered from an injury but honestly that wasn’t usually very comprehensible anyway.

Sure, he remembered a few basics but his class of sixteen-year olds were apparently not impressed by Ciao or Buongiorno, Fabricio Bellucci seemed particularly unimpressed.

“Parli anche Italiano?” Fabricio asked in a light voice.

“Si Io faccio.” Booker replied with a tight smile. That was a fairly basic phrase he was confident about.

“Sei un insegnante qualificator?” 

“Si.” Ok that one was a little harder but he just admitted to being qualified which had to be the right call.

“Stai mentendo perché non hai idea di come fare effettivamente questo lavoro?” Fabricio asked with a friendly smile.

“Si.” Booker responded realising his mistake the second Fabricio’s smile changed from friendly to mocking.

“Now that we have done some Italian let’s take a look at some English literature, because it is important to remember that it makes up half your grade and the grade which I will be deciding will reflect effort in both areas of study”.

Fabricio nodded at him still smiling. Goddamn it only 35 minutes in and he was going to be blackmailed by a sixteen-year old. It couldn’t get much worse he thought as he opened the box behind his desk to see which literature the class would be reading. It apparent could, he sighed as he pulled out the copies of Of Mice and Men.

*

Nile sped up as she spotted a familiar figure up ahead with black curly hair.

“Good afternoon Jeremy, how is your first day going?”

His expression told her more than his words did.

“Informative.” He waved the large file in front of her. 

“Courtesy of the PTA. Don’t worry I don’t think they are concerned with how quickly their kids can climb a rope.” he added at her look of apprehension.

“You snob” Nile exclaimed as she punched him lightly on the arm. “I’ll have you know that you sir, have the privilege of teaching some of the finest teenage athletes in the country and I haven’t met a single one that is a worse footballer than you” 

Joe gasped as they continued to walk out of the academy, down the road to the café they had agreed to meet in for lunch. 

“Take that back!”

“Hmmm you are on par with a six-year old from my second class today.” Nile replied cheekily with a laugh at his expression.

“That’s it, you have crossed a line Nattykins, I want a cake in recompense”. Nile scrunched her nose up in response.

“Anything as long as you never call me that again.”

A horrified scream interrupted Joe’s reply. It was coming from the Academy. They both automatically turned around and sprinted back towards the school.

*

Booker hurried towards the village, thankful for the opportunity to finally escape the building if only for an hour. His second class had been much easier, his year five-year olds actually appreciated the Italian he greeted them with so he decided to reward them by picking out the book about cute rabbits finding a new home. They hadn’t started it yet but he was sure they would all enjoy it, Watership Down sounded like such a wholesome story.

He had just walked outside as he heard a scream coming from the courtyard. He turned around and ran back towards the sound. It was coming from a girl about fifteen-years old, who stood next to the body of an adult woman, the woman was bleeding from both the front and back of her head.

Nicky had beaten him there and was crouched uncertainly over the woman. His body language completely unnatural. Booker automatically moved forward as he ignored the shiver in his spine telling him that something was very wrong. Nicky was a trained medic but instead of applying any of his practical knowledge he was simply holding the woman’s hand and moving his head closer to her ear. 

He could hear Andy’s familiar footsteps as she emerged through the archway on the opposite side of the courtyard. He also noticed William pull his phone out and call for an ambulance while gently leading the girl away from the body.

As he crouched over the woman something clicked into place and he recoiled slightly before flashing a look of disbelief at Nicky who seemed unwilling to look at the woman’s bloody face despite still holding his ear close to her mouth as Dr Meta Kozak whispered her last words to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun!  
> OK so according to google translate Fabricio and Booker's conversation went like this:  
> Fabricio: Do you even speak Italian?  
> Booker: Yes, I do.  
> Fabricio: Are you a qualified teacher?  
> Booker: Yes  
> Fabricio: Are you lying because you actually have no idea how to do this job?  
> Booker: Yes  
> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the new chapter, again so sorry for the delay, I really appreciate all the subscribes, kudos and the reviews I have got, they really mean so much to me, if you have time please consider reviewing if not thanks for reading anyways, I hope you have a great day/night.  
> Next chapter- What did Kozak say to Nicky? What God awful play will Joe have to attempt to make? What secrets are hidden in the Old Building? Find out next week!


	4. Murder is excusable but Alcohol is not

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guard are disturbed by the new information Kozak has provided, Andy and Nicky meet the Academy music teacher and everyone goes on a mission together.  
> Brief references to Alcohol abuse/underage drinking and drug use.

Chapter 4

“I didn’t do it.” Nicky said quickly once they were all seated.

“Of course, we know you didn’t.” Joe replied instantly.

“Well I strongly suspected that you didn’t. Way too sloppy for someone I’ve trained.” Andy said with a shrug.

“What exactly did happen?” Nile asked hesitantly.

Despite being covered in a dying woman’s blood the police had surprisingly not been very interested in Nicky. Celeste, the unfortunate girl who first happened upon Kozak said that she didn’t see anyone near her until people came to help because she screamed.

“I only got there a minute before Book, she just kept saying that we had to stop them, she was pretty out of it. She gave me this.” Nicky explained as he fished a pen drive out of his pocket. They had all gathered in Joe’s room.

It was a lovely room compared with most of the places that they stayed in. It was an en-suite with a small kitchen area. In the main room there was a large window, a wooden desk, a comfortable looking black computer chair, a wardrobe, two sets of drawers on either side of a single bed and a large painting of a stern-looking aristocrat hanging on the wall.

They had done a sweep of the room and found eight cameras and two listening devices. For now, Andy turned on the radio and placed it casually next to the closest device to cover their speaking.

“I’ll get my laptop.” Booker said quietly as he quickly left the room. He was surprised to hear someone follow him.

“Did you know?” He wasn’t surprised although the question did still make his heart sink.

“No Nicky, I was honestly as surprised as you.” Booker said turning to look him in the eye as they continued to walk to his room at the end of the corridor. Nicky only gave him a small nod in response. Booker entered the room and retrieved his bulky black laptop.

He noticed that Nicky had been careful to stand an arm’s length away from his bedroom door and that Joe was stood leaning against his own open doorway as they returned apparently under the impression that if Booker were to walk out of his line of sight with his husband he would pull out a giant sack from the back pocket of his skinny jeans and bungle Nicky into it, delivering him to the Merrick industries employee hiding under Booker’s bed waiting to conduct more vicious experiments

He really couldn’t blame them. He knew that if he had stayed away from them for a hundred years they would have honoured their agreement, he thought they would even have missed him. The clear distrust they were exhibiting only fuelled his determination to prove to them that he had no connection to Kozak being here.

Booker clicked on the video, it was the only file on the pen drive. 

An annoyed looking Kozak appeared on screen. Her bloodshot eyes stared directly into the camera.

“If you’re seeing this, I’m either incapacitated or dead.” She winced slightly as she said the last word. “If you haven’t actually stood over my cold dead corpse I expect you to confirm that last part. If it is regrettably true, than I have to admit-“ She took an annoyed deep breath and huffed it out of her nose before continuing.

“I have been murdered by this idiotic cult, before you could get here. Surprise, surprise, they aren’t too fond of scientists or unnatural medicine. But when their leader got sick, he had a change of heart and I was kidnapped. I can’t imagine you will mourn me, but I know that you will care about the six missing teachers. At least one of them, Alex Fisher, is still alive. The only way to find him is to let the cult indoctrinate you. They won’t humour me, I’m already too brainwashed by the evils of science to convert.”

She looked off to the side of the camera for a second before looking back. “Contrary to what you think of me I am not evil or heartless, I spent my life trying to cure diseases, diseases like the one that killed your son, I wanted to make the world better, so I won’t expose you, it was always an empty threat, these people don’t want to help anyone, no one here knows about your talents.

But I still couldn’t bring myself to destroy the data I had on you, it’s on another pen drive hidden in the old building, it should be easy for you to find, the first half of the password you will need is 2839485886524GLH9, once you find the other pen drive it will have the second half of the password scratched into the lid, the data on you and all the information I have on the cult are on it you may choose what to do with it. Good luck.”

“She invited you here?” Andy asked incredulously.

“No! Copley did. I think Copley did.” Booker sounded very defensive.

“She clearly made this video for you. She knew you would get here!” Now Joe had joined in.

“We don’t have time to waste, we need to find the pen drive now.”

“You mean we desperately need to break into the building that we were told was ‘forbidden’, as if any self-respecting adult would ever tell a room full of people that without expecting them to take it as a challenge. You want us to do this in broad daylight because the mad scientist that experimented on us a few months ago was coincidentally kidnapped and held in that very building. And she decided to grow a heart and hide this key information for us moments before she was ‘murdered’”. He made quotation marks with his fingers as he said the last word.

“She was actually murdered Joe, some of her blood is still in my watch.” Nicky muttered.

“I swear I don’t know what’s going on.” Booker exclaimed, he truly had no explanation to give.

“Do you have the letter?” Nicky asked glancing at Booker’s bag.

“Not on me.”

“You left it in France?”

“No, it’s in my car.”

“Why would you bring something like that here?” Andy asked, Booker was a professional, it made absolutely no sense to her for him to do something so careless.

“I can’t win, can I?” He asked throwing his hands up in frustration.

“Just get it and bring it back here. If we are going to old building we do it at night.” Andy decided. He hurried out of the room the second she finished speaking, there was silence for a split second before her three companions all started speaking.

“He is full of shit, it can’t be a coincidence, I don’t like this-“

“We all know he’s lying again, I know you want to trust him but-“

“We haven’t seen the letter yet, I think we should give him-

“Everyone just, stop. We need answers, I’m calling Copley again and this time he’s going to answer his damn phone.” As if the universe itself was intimidated by her, Copley did in fact answer his phone on the first ring. Even if he had asked for time off this was too important.

“Why did you suggest this job?” Andy asked without preamble.

There was a pause, he seemed to be thinking carefully about his next words.

“I have known Mark Davis since we were children. A month ago, he contacted me to ask for help finding his ex-wife, Sophia. I had no intentions of misleading you, it just seemed much too early to ask for a personal favour. I know him, he’s just a normal guy, a mechanic from Scotland.”

“Then why was Kozak here?”

“Was here? I don’t know. I can look into it. But Mark is genuine. I don’t know how much weight my word carries with any of you, but I promise you I haven’t set you up and neither has he.”

“Has Booker? Did you send him a letter telling him to come to this school?”

“No.”

*

By the time booker returned the room was silent. Nicky and Joe were leaning against the uncomfortable bed posts at the bottom of the bed, legs stretched out, while Nile leaned against the top of the bed and Andy had claimed the desk chair. No one seemed keen on eye contact.

He wordlessly handed the letter to Andy as the others all sat up a little more. He watched as she read it quickly and looked up at him, holding his eye for a second before passing it back to him.

“Someone lured you here. You need to leave.” Her tone was firm as she stood up from her chair.

“No, that’s why I need to stay.” The other immortals looked at Booker in surprise.

“It’s too dangerous. We just escaped from Merrick, I’m not going through that again. None of us are.”

“If you want to run away, you’re welcome to, I’m staying.”

Joe cringed at the particularly rude insult Andy had just hurled in , they kept switching languages, this was the fifth. It had been about ten minutes since Andy had taken offense at the term ‘run away’. He slid off the bed and picked up the letter that Booker had dropped to the floor after Andy had made an unflattering comment about the awful moustache he had proudly worn for the entirety of the 1970s (“It looked like you superglued a rat to your face!”).

He brought it back to the bed and placed it between the three of them so that they could all easily read it.

“This isn’t threatening at all. Who do you think wrote it?” Nicky asked as he skim read the last line. The letter was short, only four lines. It was clear that Kozak didn’t write it.

“A cult member?” Joe responded with a shrug, Nicky just half shrugged back. A lot had happened and none of it made sense. He thought it was best to wait until they had new information to try to figure out what was going on. There was no way any of them would abandon a school full of innocent children to this shit show, no matter who exactly was manipulating them.

“How long will they argue for?” Nile asked bored since while they argued, neither Booker nor Andy ever slipped into a language she had any hope of understanding.

“Hard to say. She really doesn’t like the R word.” Joe murmured with a quick glance at the two. They were still arguing at full steam, both holding their own.

“How was class?” Joe asked Nicky as he entwined their hands, resting them on his leg. He knew that Nicky wouldn’t care about Kozak’s death, but her very presence had been a nasty and shocking reminder of one of the most difficult times in their life, one they had barely put behind them.

“Better than I expected actually. Apart from the obvious.”

“You had little ones, they always love you, everyone loves you.”

“Tell that to the hundreds of people who have killed me.”

“As if we would leave any alive to tell.” Joe said as he squeezed Nicky’s hand.

“I’m sorry I ended up with your subject, how was games?” Nicky said turning to Nile.

“Pretty easy, I just got to play football all day, so not much of a challenge, better than Joe’s day.” She added with a smirk.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Nicky asked turning back towards Joe bringing his free hand up to stroke his arm.

“I had the pleasure of meeting-“

A loud bell drowned out the next word and the headmistress spoke to the school in a cheerful voice, “All students and teachers please report to the hall.”

*

“I know everyone has had a terrible, truly awful shock today, I would like to remind you all that we are a family and we will get through this together. I would also like to acknowledge one new staff member in particular for his grace under pressure, heroic attitude and outstanding use of first aid skills,” Nicky frowned slightly as Joe gave him a proud little smile, they weren’t supposed to draw attention to themselves. “Please everyone give a round of applause for William Baycroft!” Nicky frowned even more now. William certainly didn’t have bits of Kozak’s blood jammed into the edges of the face of his month-old watch. He refused to clap as William did a smug little bow despite being jabbed by Nile’s elbow. He knew that Joe also didn’t clap, out of solidarity but no one jabbed him.

“Thanks to his quick action, the young women in question, who fell into a life of crime and misery due to the abuse of alcohol, Marijuana and teen pregnancy, has fully recovered from her minor injury. Therefore, classes will resume tomorrow morning as usual. However, for the next two hours you will split off into your forms and be taught about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.”

*

Nicky and Andy walked along side each other following Hyacinth Grosvenor, the rest of the guard had already been dropped off at other classrooms, apparently the new teachers weren’t trusted to do this lesson alone.

Nicky was grateful. He had personally drank alcohol since he was a young child, everyone rich enough to did back then. While he understood the effects that more modern alcohol had and knew that it should never be given to children, he had no idea how to teach it.

Hyacinth walked into a classroom gesturing for Nicky and Andy to follow her. It was the music room, one of the most brightly decorated and inviting rooms he had seen at the academy. It even had colourful paper planes hanging from the celling, each one had a little paper person, playing a little paper instrument. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than he noticed the banjo. It was leaning against the music teacher’s chair. She was a friendly looking women in her mid-forties dressed in yellow flowery jeans and a bright orange jumper. A normal person may assume that she had just been practising while she waited for her students, but Nicky was not a normal person and his instincts had helped him dodge bullets in the past. Well one time, despite Andy and Joe claiming that he just got lucky.

That’s why he took a slight step back so that Andy was in front of him.

“Mr Nathaniel Green, Miss Anne Adams, I would like to introduce you to Miss Rose Dreymur, she is our music teacher, Mr Green teaches art and Miss Adams is our ICT teacher.”

They all shook hands politely and Nicky made sure to go first and take a large step backwards, leaving Andy once again in front of him. He noticed that she then copied him taking an even larger step back. He also realised that she had no idea what she was battling him for, but she was prepared to fight to the metaphorical death because if something was spooking him than surely, she would want to escape it too.

“Well we better take one of you over to Mr Roxton, who would like to stay here with Miss Dreymur?”

Miss Dreymur smiled up at them warmly while she picked up her banjo and played a familiar tune, from deliverance, before giggling manically. “I wrote a song especially for the occasion. We will save these children with the power of some good ole fashioned wholesome music.”

Ordinarily they or at least Andy, would have been much blunter, said a polite but firm no thank you, but they had all agreed that they needed to make an effort to gain the trust of the other teachers to aid their investigation. This meant that their only option was once again to bullshit their way through. The only difference being that they were trying to out bullshit each other.

“Unfortunately, I have no musical abilities.” Andy said quickly with a sorrowful look, just managing to keep sarcasm out of her voice as she said the first word.

“So, you would benefit from learning? I have no musical talents either, but I am able to channel my creativity into my art-“ Andy failed to supress a snort at that, she had seen his drawings. He had once drawn a detailed map of the journey from Rome to Florence for the four of them to follow in 1456. Andy had doubted the legitimacy of it and voiced her opinion loudly on day four, Quynh had kindly waited until day six. While Joe finally lost his patience when Nicky determinedly told him that no, the locals were not speaking Danish, they were still in The Papal States, Joe just couldn’t understand them because they had village accents. It still came up occasionally during their arguments. Neither would ever admit defeat.

Hyacinth and Rose frowned at Andy’s snort.

“I’m sorry, bless me.”

“That was a sneeze?” Nicky asked with a hint of incredulity in his voice.

“Yes. I’m sure you channel your creativity to create truly unique works of art!” Andy claimed while internally struggling to keep a straight face. “I just think I’m coming down with a cold, my voice would sound very uninspiring.”

“It would be better than mine though, when I sing my accent gets much stronger and we want the children to be able to clearly hear every word of our important message, their young lives could depend on it.” Nicky said while suddenly developing a much stronger Italian accent and throwing in some exaggerated hand gestures for good measure.

“I am sure you both sing beautifully, but those are not the only instruments you can play. We have,” Rose told them as she reached behind her chair and dramatically pulled forth “the tambourine of friendship!”

The two immortals side eyed each other in disbelief. They used to charge into battle on steeds, save entire cities, mothers used to ask them for the honour of naming their children after them.

“You know I think Mr Roxton can manage on his own. You two stay here and have fun, it is your first day.” Hyacinth said with a wink before walking away. A stunned Nicky and Andy watched her walk to the door open it and disappear behind it, in disbelief. That woman had actually left them in this hell he thought.

“Now who wants the tambourine of friendship and who wants the triangle of trust?”

*

“Thank God and thank you.” Nicky said with a kiss to Joe’s cheek as he placed the glass of wine into his hands and slid back into his position on his bed arm around Nicky’s shoulders. They were sat with their backs leaning against the headboard, legs stretched out. The radio had once again been turned on, this time to classical music.

Joe had had a short conversation with Booker who managed to loop some footage of them both sat a chaste two metres apart, so they were camera free for the next hour until it was time for work.

“That bad huh?”

“I had to listen to Andy’s singing for an hour and a half and she beat me to the triangle of truth, I got stuck with the stupid tambourine of friendship.”

“A fate worse than death.” Joe murmured with a little grin, he lifted his head slightly and kissed Nicky’s forehead. “I thought you liked tambourines though?”

“I like listening to them when someone talented can play them or when it’s just one of us messing around. I don’t like having to play into to a class of heckling fifteen-year-olds.”

“Awww, Habibi.” He said as he pulled him closer.

“What awful thing did you have to do?” Nicky asked starting to stroke Joe’s chest comfortingly with his free hand.

“Just watched a video, ‘too cool for drugs,’ awful acting but better than your lesson.”

“That’s it? This is completely unjust.”

“It is.” He said while he absentmindedly stroked Nicky’s hair and Nicky finished his drink.

“Any chance I could hear the song?” He whispered.

“None at all.” Nicky said putting his glass down.

“There is no way,” Joe said kissing his way up Nicky’s neck stopping at the bottom of his ear to nibble lightly “that I could possibly convince you?”

“Hmmm it is very unlikely.” Nicky said gently tangling his hands in his soft curls while throwing one leg over Joe’s hooking it and pulling him closer. “But you have another forty minutes to try.” He felt Joe grin against his neck.

*

“That’s not double-clicking, Andy.” Nile said for the fourth time in a row.

“Yes it is, one, two, double-click.”

“That’s not, ok, let’s try something else you can get by without that, so let’s try something easy, connecting to the internet, show me how you would do that.”

Andy turned back towards the laptop, a look of sheer concentration on her face, the same one she used when she diffused bombs. She slowly moved the mouse down the screen glancing at Nile every few seconds who gave her encouraging nods. She then moved it more confidently to the Windows icon at the bottom of the screen before clicking it and then clicking it again causing the menu to disappear quickly.

“Just once.” Nile said in a patient voice.

“Of course.”

She moved the mouse up a bit quicker this time confidently clicking on settings.

“That’s it.” Nile said encouragingly.

When she had the list of available networks she looked confused again. The treacherous machine had actually made sense to her for a few minutes.

“Don’t worry you normally have to ask the person who owns the house or works there to know which network to use and the password. Here it’s that one and this is the password.”

“But what if no one owns the network? Booker didn’t ask anyone for a network password in my cave.” Andy asked with a frown on her face.

“That time when he said he was trying to track Copley?” Andy nodded. “Ummm I don’t think he actually used the internet there.”

“That bastard.” Andy muttered.

“Speaking of Booker, are you two still arguing or have you made up?”

“That’s the point Nile, we have a chain of command, we aren’t arguing, he is disobeying orders.”

“That’s a little harsh, you aren’t a dictator.”

“No, but if a decision needs to be made I make it, I’m not saying I won’t listen to the rest of you but they always trusted me to make decisions before-“ She broke off and turned away from Nile, back to the laptop.

“It’s time we need to meet them.”

*

The five of them met up just outside Old Building. It didn’t look particularly intimidating, more just run-down than anything. Several of the windows were boarded up. They had to climb the metal fence surrounding it.

The four of them immediately moved to the nearest window and worked on removing it, while Booker kept watch. It was a lot more effort than they expected. Once one piece of wood had been removed, they realised there was another one beneath it.

“Fuck this we’re using the door.” Andy said after removing the third piece of wood and throwing it to the ground.

After quickly picking the lock she was shocked to find that the door behind it was much more high-tech and required a fingerprint to activate it.

“Alright, back to the window.” Andy said as she unsheathed her labrys.

Ten minutes later Nile and Booker stood a little off to the side observing the other immortals hack and slash violently at the 8th piece of wood that blocked what Nile was beginning to suspect was not actually a window. She did not care to share her theory with any of the swearing immortals currently swinging ancient or medieval weaponry.

“Isn’t this where they kept Kozak? How did she get out?” She asked Booker as they watched Andy take a running start towards the ‘window’.

“She didn’t show up in the video until she was in the courtyard, she must have passed a dozen cameras, but someone erased the footage before I got to it.” Booker replied looking the building up and down. He fished his phone out of his pocket before loading the footage and showing it to Nile.

“It looks like she was coming more from that direction.” Nile said pointing to there left.

“Sounds right you can check it out, I’ll keep watch.”

“What is this Scooby-Doo? I am not wandering off to find the secret entrance to a murderous cult’s dungeon, on my own, unless it is strictly necessary. You lot really do like to complicate things, don’t you?”

“I don’t remember that episode, but point taken.” Booker replied with a grin. She really was going to be a great leader one day.

She turned to tell one of the other three to stop acting like a caveman and keep watch for a few minutes while her and Booker looked for a hidden entrance when instead of once again hearing the sound of a weapon hitting wood she heard a sword hit metal.

“Mother Fucker! Why the fuck won’t you open! Go to the crows, you sard-witted, twelve-toed, Pidgeon-livered, chicken thieving, flapdoodle, I’m going to take this-“

“There might be another way in, also what’s a flapdoodle?”

After a few minutes of walking Booker noticed that the ground underneath him felt different. He pressed his feet down with more pressure. There was definitely something beneath him. He called the others over and together they moved the fake grass which revealed a door locked by two chains and a padlock.

After cutting the chains and throwing open the doors they all looked down into the dark room, they were all looking from different angles, stood around the entrance. All any of them could make out a staircase.

“See, medieval or ancient weaponry isn’t always necessary.” Booker said as he walked towards the stairs. “Sometimes brains are more useful than brawn.” The second before his foot touched the first step, he was tackled to the side by Nicky at the same time that Joe tried to yank him backwards and Nile let out a shout of warning.

“What the hell?”

“People with brains,” Andy said while she walked around the three men lying awkwardly on the floor, coming to a stop crouching in front of the first step, “check for trip wires, when using the secret entrance to a murderous cult’s dungeon.”

“Oh, thanks.” He said. Nicky rolled his eyes at him, from his spot half on the floor and half on top of Booker’s legs, but Booker noticed that he did have a little smile on his face.

Joe, who Booker was currently draped across, simply demanded that he show his gratitude by moving his ‘ape-like’ arms off him. He hadn’t used an insult like that towards him in months. It warmed Booker’s heart almost as much as the fact that he saved him from the trip wire. That and Nicky’s eye roll meant that they were forgiving him. It was how you behaved with a sibling, with family.

*

Nile was absolutely convinced that someone or something was going to grab her leg and pull. Every single horror film confirmed this, although while she watched them she didn’t feel much sympathy for the characters because really, what idiot would go down steps that seemed designed with the main purpose of having big enough gaps between them for the convenience of a lazy murderer? Why, she heard her thirteen-year-old self repeat, would anyone with an ounce of self-preservation willingly go down into a dark cellar?

She was almost thrilled to get to the bottom safely as Andy found the light switch using her gloved hand and turned it on. Although she thought it was a little fair that Nicky got to go down the last eight steps, able to clearly see that no hands were about to grab his feet.

They were in a narrow corridor so kept shuffling forwards towards a doorway which opened up into another room.

It was a large circular room, several circles of different sizes were drawn onto the floor, stars shone down at her from the celling and the walls were covered with charts of the solar system.

A throne stood in the centre, on a slight stage. She walked over to it to get a better look. Two other chairs stood below the stage, but they were of a similar design to the throne, just smaller, all three were a deep purple colour and had a model of a white planet with large red patches at the end of each arm rest.

“Over here.” Nile followed Joe’s call to another opening, this one had a glass door, with a sophisticated lock. Looking through the door Nile could see rows and rows of large glass cabinets, inside them were hundreds of identical looking pen drives stood up in foam slots.

“Would it have killed her to be more specific?” Joe muttered from her side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the new chapter. Thanks so much for reading, if you can, please drop me a review or kudos, they mean so much to me. If not thank you for reading anyway. I hope you all have wonderful days/nights!


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